Coming Of Age
by Gracie-San
Summary: After an incident in the bathroom between Pony and Soda, Soda and Darry realize they need to give Ponyboy "The Talk".


**This just happened to be one of those times where I sort of experienced and I thought I would write about it.**

"Pony! You're not even on the toilet! Get out of the bathroom! I gotta pee!" Soda yelled beating on the door. He just guzzled down 6 glasses of water after eating some nachos with jalapeños, and he felt like his bladder was going to explode, plus it didn't help that his mouth burning.

"Soda! Would you just hold on? Give me like two more minutes!" Pony yelled, sounding strained.

"Two more minutes ain't gonna cut it! If you don't come out, I'm comin' in!" Soda jumped around crazily holding onto his crotch and bit his lip.

"Haha! This is almost better than Mickey Mouse!" Two-Bit said exiting the kitchen with a beer in his hand. "Mmm. This beer is so cold and it tastes so good, and it's so… watery and fluid-like." Soda cringed and gave Two-Bit a hateful stare.

"How do you know what fluid means?"

"Just cause I don't try at school doesn't mean I don't pay attention," said Two-Bit smirking. "But you know beer is like water, and water is in a rushing river. Whoosh! Whoosh!" he made his arms wiggle in emphasis.

Soda turned from Two-Bit towards the bathroom door and hollered, "Okay! That's it! Ponyboy, I'm coming in there whether you like it or not!" Soda turned the door knob. As soon as he walked into the bathroom, he had exited and looked shocked. "Oh, um… uh… I'll go use the tree in the backyard," he mumbled quickly, pushing past Two-Bit.

A flustered Ponyboy entered the hallway and stuttered, "I'm gonna, gonna g-g-g-go to the p-p-park, okay? Tell S-s-s-soda where I went." Pony practically sprinted out the house with his face red as a cherry tomato.

* * *

Two-Bit stood there, with the beer in his hand, and said to no one in particular, "What in the hell just happened?"

Soda was pacing the kitchen and Two-Bit just stood there wondering what happened in the bathroom to make Soda so upset. He never did that unless something was truly bothering him, and Two-Bit couldn't come up with a reasonable conclusion as to why Soda was acting the way he was acting. "Man, what's wrong? You walked in on Pony in the bathroom. What's the big deal?"

"Two-Bit, he wasn't _using_ the bathroom! _That's_ the big deal!" Soda stopped pacing and slammed his fists on the table.

"Then what was he…" Two-Bit's voice trailed off and his eyes went wide. "Oh! Whoa! Are you serious?!"

Soda nodded his head. "Yeah, and I don't know what to do! I mean, he even had a copy of the _Playboy_ magazine!"

"He did? I wonder where he got them from. I've been looking all over the place and I hadn't found none yet. Those girls are truly-"

"Two-Bit!" Soda scolded his friend. "You're not helping me!"

"Sorry!" Two-Bit put up his hands and looked apologetic, then smiled. "But look at it this way, you don't have to worry about him bein' a homo anymore."

Soda put his face in his hands and looked up to the sky. "God, why? I just wanna know. Why? Why did you stick Two-Bit with me when I need advice? Why didn't you send Steve over?" Two-Bit feigned being hurt at his words.

The screen door slammed and Steve's voice rang through the house, "Hey y'all!"

"Nevermind, God." Soda turned his attention over to Steve and said, "Hey," and tried to put on a smile, but only turned into a grimace, and he started pacing the kitchen again.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Steve seating himself in a chair at the kitchen table.

"Soda walked in on Pony 'getting to know himself'," Two-Bit answered, using air quotes, "if you know what I mean."

Steve snorted and started laughing with Two-Bit while Soda just looked at them. "You guys, think this is funny?" Soda saw he was going to get a response from them and quickly added, "Don't answer that."

He sighed exasperated. "Do you realize that this means me and Darry are going to have to talk to him about… sex, and I'm not ready for that yet. I mean, he's only 15."

"But isn't he going through, uh… what's the word… puberty?" Steve asked. Soda nodded.

Two-Bit chimed in. "Well, he's either going to find out the easy way, which is you," Two-Bit pointed at Soda, "telling him, or the hard way, which is getting drunk one night and end up fooling around with a girl who he might impregnate if he don't know the proper use of condoms and such."

Soda's eyes went wide and he whispered, "Oh no."

"I'm playing! Jeez, learn how to take a joke. There's still the possibility, and the more likely choice, he'd find out about it by fooling with a guy instead, so you don't have to worry about the pregnant thing." Soda hit him on the back of his head while he yelled, "Well, it could happen! There _are_ some guys who root for their own team, you know."

Steve laughed and leaned back in his chair. "Where's the little brat anyways?"

"He went to the park," answered Two-Bit who was getting up to go to the refrigerator.

Steve asked another question. "Well, where's Darry? Ain't he off today?"

"He went to the grocery store. I wish he'd hurry back, so we can bring Pony home and get this stupid talk over with." Soda leaned on the kitchen counter.

"Oh, man, I will not wanna miss that!" Two-Bit whooped as he cut himself a slice of chocolate cake and gave Steve a high-five.

"I just hope that Pony isn't _too_ embarrassed to come home, and talk to us."

* * *

Pony sat on a swing and twisted himself around in it. His face wasn't red anymore but still a light shade of pink and he had calmed down quite a bit, yet he was still upset. He leaned his head on the chain-links, and closed his eyes, letting the cold steel cool him down. He couldn't believe Soda had walked in on him when he was "masturbating" as they called it in Sex Ed. Just thinking about the whole ordeal made his face turn a shade of dark pink.

Pony laughed at the thought of his brother's expression. It was quite funny, yet he still felt wrong. You see, he liked the feeling, he couldn't lie about that, but he felt dirty. Like he did something that he wasn't supposed to, which was giving him the impression that masturbation was a bad thing, even though it's related to sex which everyone claims to be a good thing.

So then what was it? Good? Bad? Something in between? Pony sighed and stood up and walked over to the jungle gym. He remembered how he always used to climb on top of them and hang upside down when he was younger.

_How life was so much simpler then. The less you knew, the less responsibility you had, and then to top it off you were more innocent. The only real problem you had was if somebody stole your cookie. _He smiled at his joke and swung around to the built in ladder. He made himself comfortable and started thinking about how Soda and Darry would react.

_I bet they'll probably be mad at me. That is kinda… gross. Isn't it? But if the rest of the gang does it, doesn't that make them gross, too? Yet, if I'm not the only one doing it, then it makes the whole idea normal, and I shouldn't feel wrong about it. Right? _He balled his hands into a fist, and hit the side of them on the metal of the jungle gym causing it to vibrate a little.

He realized that was this was when he needed Johnny. Johnny was the person he could confide in if Soda wasn't available, or he didn't feel comfortable telling him, and after what happened earlier today with his brother, he knew he couldn't go to him. Well, at least not right now anyways, so Johnny would be the perfect candidate.

He smiled again, only this time at the memory of Johnny. He was very quiet, but he was very observant, and was very smart, too. He always seemed to have an answer for everything.

He could imagine Johnny saying in that soft tone of his, "Well, maybe it's something you have to decide for yourself. If you like it, and you think its right, it's right. If you think it's wrong, it's wrong. Nobody can really tell you." And Pony knew that was the answer, but he still felt uneasy about something, and he didn't know what.

He looked out into the horizon. "Mm. The sunset."

* * *

"So you're saying you caught Pony, our little brother, in the bathroom, with a _Playboy_, 'getting to know himself?'" Darry asked sitting in his chair, trying to understand what Soda had said in a rushed tone, with added side-notes from Two-Bit and Steve.

Soda nodded his head and said, "Yeah. Pretty much."

"Well…" Darry was at a loss for words. He thought he would have to go through this with Soda, but not Pony. Pony seemed a little shy when it came to girls, so he sort of expected him to be a late bloomer. He was just a little shocked. "We are gonna have to talk to him about this. Where is he?"

"At the park."

"C'mon. Let's go get him." Both Two-Bit and Steve had started to stand up from the couch but Darry pushed them back down quickly. "No."

"But-" Two-Bit started

"No. Y'all are staying here. This is a family issue."

"Aren't we family?" Steve asked.

"Yes, unfortunately, you are, but you're not immediate family. Now sit down." Two-Bit and Steve plopped themselves back down on the couch, mumbling and grumbling while the two brothers made their way to their rusted old truck.

Once inside, the truck Soda asked Darry, "What are you gonna tell him?"

Darry shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "That if he's going to do it, he needs to lock a damn door. That's what partially got him into this mess."

Soda chuckled but he wanted a serious answer. "No, what are you _really _going to tell him."

"Well, the same thing Mom and Dad told us. That his body is going through changes and he's going to have weird feelings, and as long as he exhibits them by himself then we're fine."

"Yeah, but what if he wants to _know_ about sex. Like really know. Like what happens and stuff like that."

"Then we tell him." Darry took his eyes away from the road and glanced at his little brother. He was slumped over and looked unhappy, and he knew the reason why. He felt the same way because Pony was growing up and they couldn't protect him anymore. They had to tell him things, let him take responsibility, and start treating him as a young adult. _No wonder Mom would get so choked up when she thought about us getting married and moving out._ _I can feel her pain._

They pulled up to the park and saw a silhouette of a figure sitting on a jungle gym, watching the sunset. Soda jumped out of the car and yelled, "Pony!"

Pony looked in the direction of his name was called, and the peacefulness that was once on his face was replaced with worry. "Oh, no," he whispered and jumped off the jungle gym and bolted in the other direction.

"Pony! C'mon! Come back!" Soda took off after him, and Darry soon followed suit. Pony didn't very far though, because the exit was _way_ on the other side of the park, and he had come to a dead end because of a fence. Pony kicked at the fence for being so stupid and careless and he heard Soda say in between deep breaths, "What did the fence ever do to you?"

He heard footsteps and guessed that they were Darry's. "Dang, Pony. You sure can run fast, can't you?" he said bending over putting his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths also.

The boys stood there listening to each other's breathing when Pony broke the silence by, "Can we go ahead and talk about this? I don't like the anticipation."

Darry sat down on the grass and Pony and Soda joined him. "Pony, you gotta anything to say about what happened?"

"Uh," Pony picked at a blade of grass. "Well, um… am I in trouble or something?"

Soda looked at him weirdly. "No, why would you think you're in trouble?"

Pony looked up at Soda, confused. "'Cause I mean, I'm not supposed to do that. Right?"

Darry rubbed his shoulder. "Pony, baby, it's okay. Have you taken Sex Ed yet?" Pony nodded. "Well, then you know your body is changing cause of hormones and whatnot, and you're gonna start having sexual feelings, and if you wanna," Darry paused to find the right word, "investigate them, then go ahead. It's fine by me."

"And me too," Soda said putting his arm around Pony.

Darry nodded and was satisfied with the speech he gave, but he remembered he left out something. "Just do it by yourself. Not with a girl. Definitely not with a girl."

"I know what happens if I have sex with a girl, Darry," Pony said. "That's when the power of the condom is used," he said smiling.

Darry was about to respond but Soda interrupted him by saying, "So, are you all right, now?"

Pony nodded, "I'm all right now. It's just… well, can you guys knock if I'm in a room by myself? For precautions." He looked at both of his brothers and bit his lip.

Darry snorted and said, "Yeah, we can do that." He felt a cold breeze and took that as a sign for him and his brothers to go back home. "Y'all let's go home." They all stood up and brushed the grass of their jeans and started walking back towards the truck. Soda and Pony started playfully jabbing each other, and then challenged each other towards a race back to the truck.

Darry decided he'd lag behind and started to look at his littlest brother, and could see the features of him becoming a man. He knew his voice was getting a little bit deeper, but he noticed he had grown a bit more and had a little bit more muscle. He smiled and thought to himself, "_You know, I'm not really losing him. He's just coming-of-age."_

**Liked it? Then please leave a review telling me so. Thanks for reading!**


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